The Athletic Thinks Badgers Will Eventually Replace Luke Fickell With Former Wisconsin Offensive Lineman

Luke Fickell is firmly on the hot seat, and The Athletic is predicting he will eventually be replaced by a former Wisconsin Badgers offensive lineman from the Barry Alvarez era.

New Mexico Lobos head coach Jason Eck played his college football for the Wisconsin Badgers. | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

Luke Fickell is coaching for his job in 2026.

With an easier schedule on paper and a roster that has gotten more investment from the athletic department, he should be in better position to succeed this season than in year's past.

Still, the expectations will be for higher achievement and sustained success in the coming seasons, and both Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers will have a lot to prove.

Over at The Athletic, writer Ralph D. Russo doesn't think Fickell will fully turn the program around and stick around for the future.

Editor: “We want to project every P4 team’s coach in 2030?”

Me: “Crazy. Impossible. How? Sure! Sign me up.”

Who will be coaching your school in 2030? Predicting every Power 4 football program’s head man https://t.co/3kSwydkWcJ via @NYTimes

— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoATH) February 27, 2026

He predicts that by 2030, the Badgers will have a different head coach and choose to hire former Wisconsin offensive lineman Jason Eck, who is currently the head coach at New Mexico.

The Wisconsin native and former Badgers offensive lineman seems to be on a collision course with a return to Madison after winning a share of the Mountain West regular season title last year with one of the most extensively overhauled rosters in the FBS.

Ralph D. Russo, The Athletic

Russo doesn't predict exactly when Fickell would be fired and Eck would replace him, just that it will happen in the next five years.

Eck led the Lobos to a 9-4 record in his first season running New Mexico. He spent the previous three years as the head coach at Idaho, where he took the Vandals to the FCS playoffs each year.

Eck and Fickell aren't the only Badgers coaches on the move in Russo's predictions.

Related: Only One Coach Is Under More Pressure Than Luke Fickell and Wisconsin Badgers in 2026

Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on in the second half against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Camp Randall Stadium. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

He thinks Fickell ends up back at Cincinnati as the head coach again after he leaves Wisconsin.

Russo also has Badgers quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton eventually ending up as a head coach for Colorado, replacing Deion Sanders.

Good luck forecasting when and how Sanders’ time in Boulder will end. Colorado has a new AD in Fernando Lovo, who has strong ties to Urban Meyer. Guiton, who played for Meyer at Ohio State, is a well-thought-of young coach.

Ralph D. Russo, The Athletic

It's a foolish exercise to try and predict what will happen in college football five years from now, but it reflects a broader lack of confidence from the national media in Fickell fixing things at Wisconsin and saving his job.

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